Welcome to the Death Trap Rogue Endgame guide! This build combines extraordinary crowd control, utility and raw power into one package to deal with anything the game has to offer. While Poison Trap or Death Trap may be included in any Rogue build, this one specializes in them by combining both with the trap-themed Exposure Key Passive. Pairing this with the high lucky hit chances of Barrage with tons of Attack Speed, it allows you to reset your traps in a matter of seconds to unleash hell on your foes at all times!
A big advantage of this playstyle is the constant spam of all of your abilities and the opportunity to pull enemies together at will with Prime Death Trap which make the build stand out. Pulling enemies offers great group utility.
Even when you don't play around the tactical benefits of the pull, you can simply spray'n'pray with this non-Combo Points build and enjoy the onslaught of arrows that fly across the screen.
Lastly, there is a much stronger Ultimate Version of this build (see in variants below) that unlocks at the far tail end of the progression. Ring of Starless Skies makes it possible to solve resources differently and play this build with Close Quarters Combat instead (however, it no longer deserves the name Death Trap Rogue then). Beware that this final setup switch requires you to replace many of your items with different rolls for optimal scaling, so prepare that moment carefully. Let's jump in and see what it's all about!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 50 Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with our Barrage Rogue Leveling Guide. If you are looking for a different Rogue playstyle, check out all of our Rogue Guides.
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
In Season 4, the Season Theme revolves around helping out the Iron Wolves. Compared to past themes, this one does not offer any borrowed power as the entire game has been redesigned with new itemization and crafting options, increasing player power substantially across the board. Instead, you can gather reputation similar to the Vampire Bounty Board from Season 2 to unlock rewards that supercharge your leveling journey to 100 with extra items, crafting materials and eventually even a Resplendent Spark to craft an uber unique.
We recommend to follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 4 guide for more information.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
- Barrage is our main attack. In the final endgame setup, we don't need any Basic Attack anymore to sustain resources and can simply spam this skill whenever we want.
- Poison Imbuement is our main damage tool. Use it to boost Barrage and apply a powerful DoT. In the final setup, you permanently have this effect active thanks to Bursting Venoms and +Poison Imbuement Count Tempers on Rings + Amulet.
- Poison Trap is our crowd control and utility skill. It helps to keep incoming damage low while buffing our damage against affected targets. Applying its DoT to a target adds various modifiers including the ability to trigger Exposure.
- Death Trap is our Ultimate Skill and can be used frequently because we reset its cooldown with Exposure. Use it in large monster packs to pull them in, lock them down, and decimate them. After using it, all our cooldowns are reset thanks to Preparation.
- Concealment gives us mobility, Energy, Unstoppable and Vulnerable. Use it frequently to engage packs or in combat.
- Smoke Grenade helps us stay alive and adds another powerful damage modifier. Use it whenever you begin a fight.
Rogue Specialization
[Preparation - Spend resources to reset your Ultimate Skill, which in turn resets all your other skills..
We already reset our Ultimate quickly thanks to Exposure, so the first effect doesn't have a massive impact. The main reason to use this Specialization is for the second part so we can spam all our abilities to our hearts' content.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Rogue Specialization Guide.
Paragon Board
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 when they reach level 15!
Twisting Blades Rogue Endgame Paragon
Level the Paragon Board by scrolling. Each step optimizes progression.
Glyphs
We need to level up our Glyphs to increase their power and activate their Additional Bonus with surrounding nodes. Glyphs have a radius of 3 by default, this increases to 4 at Glyph level 15. Complete Nightmare Dungeons to obtain Glyph experience.
Note that there are some Glyph position swaps and a few adjustments to surrounding Paragon nodes once they reach level 15. See the last two steps in the Paragon progression above for details. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Versatility
- Bane
- Tracker
- Control
- Efficacy
- Ambush
To Level 21
- Versatility
- Efficacy
- Bane
- Ambush
- Tracker
- Control
There are a total of 225 Paragon Points. Starting with level 50 you gain 4 Paragon Points per level, including 20 from Renown, and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Also check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Endgame Progression & Variants
When you start diving into the Endgame, you don't have all the tools available to achieve the final build versions. Let us guide you through different progression points to give you a smooth transition from our Leveling Guides to the final build version.
Progression Goals
Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. While we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
- Unlock the following Aspects in your Codex of Power:
- Branching Volleys in Shadowed Plunge (Hawezar)
- Ravenous in Shifting City (Dry Steppes)
- Corruption in Renegade's Retreat (Kehjistan)
- Umbral in Champion's Demise (Dry Steppes)
- Disobedience from Halls of the Damned in Kehjistan)
- Blast-Trapper's in Kor Valar Ramparts (Fractured Peaks)
- Inner Calm in Raethwind Wilds (Scosglen)
- Retribution in Abandoned Mineworks (Kehjistan)
- Shared Misery in Oblivion (Hawezar)
- Wind Striker in Shivta Ruins (Kehjistan)
- Explosive Verve in Derelict Lodge (Fractured Peaks)
- Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols:
- Accursed Touch: Gamble Daggers. This is a great source of Vulnerable for more damage and build synergies. This replaces Blast-Trapper's.
- Noxious Ice: Gamble Boots. Once we have Chance to Freeze from Tempering on armor pieces, this becomes a powerful damage multiplier. This replaces Wind Striker.
- Assimilation: Gamble Pants. This is a rare source of Fortify for Rogues and provides extra dodge. This replaces Disobedience.
- Umbrous: Gamble Pants. With this aspect we can trigger Dark Shroud using Barrage for extra defenses and other synergies. This goes on your Amulet and replaces Ravenous by moving Branching Volleys onto the Ring, or Inner Calm if you still need Energy.
- Concussive Strikes: Gamble Boots. This Aspect offers another damage multiplier on a defensive slot. This replaces Shared Misery.
- Bursting Venoms: Gamble Daggers. This aspect enables us to spam Poison Imbuement nearly permanently, especially in boss fights. This replaces Inner Calm[/d4-affix.
- [d4-affix id=1884339]High Velocity: Gamble Daggers. Another powerful aspect boosting Barrage, especially in AoE fights and gives us even more Lucky Hits. This replaces Umbral.
- Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops. Note: You cannot gamble Unique items with obols!
- Tibault's Will: This item is a great damage boost to replace Concussive Strikes and refills our Energy every time we use Concealment.
- If you get lucky with Uber Unique drops, consider the following adjustments:
- Doombringer: This Sword is an incredible defensive boost in an offensive slot and can replace Retribution, Bursting Venoms, Undying, Concussive Strikes or Tibault's Will for better survivability in high-end content.
- Ring of Starless Skies: This Ring together with a chunky Resource Cost Reduction roll on your weapon allows you to no longer rely on Tibault's Will, Aftermath or Enhanced Concealment to refill your Energy. At this point you can even entirely remove Exposure and run Close Quarters Combat to roughly double your DPS. This is the ultimate version of the build and requires a respec and several new items to go with it, see more details in the variants below.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Steps
(lvl 50)
to 100
& The Pit
w/ Starless Skies
Once you have completed the leveling guide, only the Codex of Power Aspects are guaranteed. With this setup, you can farm the Legendary Aspects and Unique items you need for the next progression point.
Gear
- Unlock all the Codex Powers mentioned above and start imprinting your items. Some of them are used only temporarily as a filler.
- As soon as you acquire Umbrous, put it on your Amulet and move Branching Volleys to another slot. This triggers a respec into Dark Shroud to benefit from this power (see below).
- Focus on getting + Skill ranks, % Damage, Life, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, Armor & Resists on your items. Aim for 5000-7000 Armor as you progress through World Tier 3.
Skills
- This is the starter version of the build and requires some adjustments throughout the progression steps.
- As soon as you acquire Umbrous, switch to the Skill Tree from the next progression step, with the exception below.
- Wait until you acquire Chance to Freeze Tempers on your armor, then switch Precision Imbuement to Frigid Finesse.
- If you have too much trouble keeping up your Energy, you can replace Smoke Grenade with Puncture.
Gameplay
Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above. While you're still starting out with this build, you may be Energy starved occasionally until you unlock your final form. Focus on large pulls and if necessary use Puncture to refill.
In this setup, you have access to all Legendary Aspects and Temper mods, allowing you to pilot a much stronger version of this build. Additional Legendary Aspects are used to fill slots that may be replaced with Unique items later on.
Gear
- As soon as you can, Temper +Poison Imbuement Count on your Rings & Amulet.
- Weak Codex aspects are replaced with better drops and various other adjustments round out the build.
- Other important Temper mods to invest into are Chance to Freeze and Chance for Barrage to Cast Twice.
- Start working on capping your resists up to 70% and stack enough Armor (8000-9230) to progress through Torment difficulty.
Skills
- This is close to the endgame version of the build already. If you're still missing Umbrous, stick to the Skill Tree from the previous progression step, with the exceptions below.
- Wait until you acquire Chance to Freeze Tempers on your armor, then switch Precision Imbuement to Frigid Finesse.
- If you have too much trouble keeping up your Energy, you can replace Smoke Grenade with Puncture.
- If you want to go faster, you can run Dash instead of Smoke Grenade.
Gameplay
This setup feels pretty close to the final version. Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
In this setup, you have access to all Unique items, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking. This allows you to pilot this build at its peak efficiency. Let's take a look at the changes you need to make to implement them.
Gear
- Ensure you reach at least 9230 Armor to be capped against all enemies in the game and boost your Resistances to 70%.
- Tibault's Will is included for extra defense, damage and to solve our resource issues. Once you have these Pants, Concealment will fully fill your Energy bar every time, making sustain much easier and allowing us to free up some points on the tree.
- If you acquire Doombringer you can replace Retribution, Bursting Venoms, Undying, Concussive Strikes or Tibault's Will (with slot swaps) for better survivability in high-end content.
- If you acquire Ring of Starless Skies, you can switch to the Ultimate version.
Skills
- This is the final version of the build, designed to push high into the Pit and deal with everything else the game throws at you. At this point you can consider a few adjustments to min/max your personal playstyle.
- At the high end we no longer need Movement Speed from Haste and invest those points into Dark Shroud instead.
- Countering Poison Trap is no longer required, so we pick up Subverting Poison Trap.
- We remove 1 point from Dark Shroud and Aftermath to max out Deadly Venom.
- If you want to go faster, you can run Dash instead of Smoke Grenade.
Gameplay
- This is the final version of the build. Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
- When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, it's important to not get caught without your defenses active. Make sure to dance around enemies as you kite and fight to keep your Dark Shroud stacks high for the best protection.
- Remember that after crowd controlling elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your damage done goes way down and they can freely retaliate.
- In boss fights, beware that some of your conditional damage reduction modifiers cannot activate, for example Wiles from the Cheap Shot Paragon board. This means that they generally deal more damage against you than regular monsters and you have to prioritize dodging the attacks from shadow bosses.
The Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers. With a few tweaks this build can go much faster.
Gear
- Ravager's can replace Noxious Ice.
- Consider rolling more Cooldown Reduction on your items to get your Movement Abilities back more quickly.
Skill Tree
- Smoke Grenade and Concealment are replaced with Dash and Shadow Step so we can fly through zones.
- Various other tweaks round out the setup, but feel free to make adjustments for your personal preferences.
Gameplay
- Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above and use your mobility skills freely whenever they're ready.
This setup is intended to defeat the Tormented Bosses (lvl 200 version) and Uber Lilith and makes some adjustments based around these high-end encounters.
Gear
- Accelerating replaces Retribution which we can barely benefit from in boss fights.
- Inner Calm replaces Branching Volleys which is useless in single target encounters.
Skill Tree
- Smoke Grenade doesn't work, so we pick up Dash to dodge incoming attacks.
- Crowd control effects can't be applied, so we move around a few points to pick up more raw damage.
Gameplay
- Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
- Avoid getting hit by any big attacks, especially those that apply the Tormented debuff (increased damage taken). Use Dash to dodge if necessary.
This is the best version of this build, however it no longer plays similar to before and doesn't deserve to be called "Death Trap" build. Thanks to Ring of Starless Skies, it's possible to circumvent the entire resource recovery engine built around Tibault's Will, Concealment, Aftermath and Death Trap.
This also means we no longer need Exposure and can go Close Quarters Combat instead. All in all this version does roughly double the damage, is easier to play and more mobile but has a bit less utility. It also requires you to replace many of your items with different rolls to scale this setup, so prepare the switch carefully. Even though we can barely profit from it, we also switch our Specialization to Inner Sight for a rare boost since there's no other option to pick.
Gear
- Ensure you reach at least 9230 Armor to be capped against all enemies in the game and boost your Resistances to 70%.
- Instead of % Damage, we now need items with Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Tempers in all offensive slots. Either try to reroll your existing items or prepare a new set of items with these rolls.
- Tibault's Will is no longer needed and we go back to regular pants with Concussive Strikes. However, you can still use this unique and activate it with Shadow Step if you like.
- Umbrous replaces Undying and frees up the Amulet slot so we don't lose an offensive power for the Ring.
- If you acquire Doombringer you can replace Retribution for better survivability in high-end content.
Skills
- We make various adjustments to accommodate this playstyle.
- Dash and Shadow Step are required to activate Close Quarters Combat.
- We bring back Countering Poison Trap because we have fewer resets and charges now.
- Alchemist's Fortune is not as important anymore, so we pick up Siphoning Strikes as a replacement for Undying.
Gameplay
- Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
- When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, it's important to not get caught without your defenses active. Make sure to dance around enemies as you kite and fight to keep your Dark Shroud stacks high for the best protection.
- Remember that after crowd controlling elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your damage done goes way down and they can freely retaliate.
- In boss fights, beware that some of your conditional damage reduction modifiers cannot activate, for example Wiles from the Cheap Shot Paragon board. This means that they generally deal more damage against you than regular monsters and you have to prioritize dodging the attacks from shadow bosses.
Hardcore Adjustments
Hardcore requires you to build into more defenses. Here are some tips to be successful in this game mode:
- For better oneshot protection (but less overall sustain), you can replace Dexterity and Dodge with Maximum Life.
- Focus on acquiring Doombringer and include it instead of an offensive aspect.
- Be more conservative with Concealment and keep it ready when you engage enemies that can crowd control you, for example Cold Enchanted elites or Snakes mob types.
- For even more protection, include Eluding in your setup to get out of crowd controls.
Build Scaling & Stat Priorities
Read on to learn all you need about how to scale this build into endgame.
- Energy: With some Resource Cost Reduction on the Crossbow and resource recovery, continuous spamming of Barrage becomes achievable.
- Attack Speed: We hit the 100% Attack Speed from gear cap and even go beyond with some effects like High Velocity.
- Critical Strikes: You boost your Critical Strike Chance in various ways including rolls on Gloves, Amulet & Rings for Blended Poison Imbuement.
- Vulnerable: We apply this debuff in various ways including Puncture, Blended Shadow Imbuement & Accursed Touch.
- Skill Ranks: Poison Imbuement profits from ranks to itself and the carrying skill, allowing you to scale its damage very high in the lategame.
- Resistances: As we approach lategame, we focus on capping all of our elemental resists at 70% through rolls on Armor pieces, Paragon nodes and Jewelry sockets.
- Armor: Similar to resistances, we aim to hit the 85% damage reduction armor cap of 9230 vs. lvl 100+ monsters to be well protected against any damage type.
- Maximum Life: We stack a lot of this stat on gear and Paragons.
- Defensive Aspects: Undying and Assimilation are great boosts to survivability.
- Dark Shroud: Triggered by Umbrous, we gain tons of damage reduction as long as we don't get hit too frequently.
- Crowd Controls: We Temper various crowd control mods on our gear and drop Stun Grenades all the time. For engaging packs, we use Smoke Grenade.
Our Damage Explained article explains how to scale your Offense.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Stat Priorities
To enable your build to perform optimally, you need to reach certain Stat "Breakpoints". Some examples are reaching 100% Chance to Critically Strike, or 20 Resource per second. Since there are many values of these stats on different pieces of gear and some are interchangeable, read the checklist below and refer to the recommended Tempered Affixes ⚒️ and Masterwork Crits ↑. Desirable Greater Affixes will always be the top three recommended Affixes.
Recommended Stat Thresholds
- 10+ total Poison Imbuement Count
- 12+ total Poison Imbuement Ranks
- 12+ total Twisting Blades Ranks
- 12+ total Dark Shroud Ranks
- 50%+ Critical Strike Chance
- 100% Attack Speed Bonus
- 700%+ All Damage
- 100% Chance to Cast Barrage Twice
- Armor Capped 9,230
- Resistance Capped 70%
- 40,000+ Life
- 55%+ Resource Cost Reduction
- 20%+ Dodge Chance
- 50%+ Chance to Freeze
- 20+ Energy Per Second
- 180%+ Movement Speed
Helm: Undying
- Ranks to Poison Imbuement ↑
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Dexterity
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️ Dodge Chance
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Chest Armor: Assimilation
- Ranks to Dark Shroud ↑
- Armor
- Energy per Second
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Any Resistance
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Gloves: Bursting Venoms
- Ranks to Barrage ↑
- Critical Strike Chance
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Damage/Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Pants: Tibault's Will, focus on Close Damage Reduction.
Alternatively: Concussive Strikes
- Dexterity ↑
- Any Resistance
- Maximum Life ↑
- ⚒️ Dodge Chance
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Boots: Noxious Ice
- Movement Speed ↑
- Armor
- Energy per Second
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Movement Speed
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Crossbow: Corruption
- Resource Cost Reduction ↑
- Attack Speed ↑
- Dexterity ↑
- ⚒️ Chance for Barrage to Cast Twice
- ⚒️ Damage/Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
One-Handed: Accursed Touch & Retribution
- Attack Speed ↑
- Maximum Life ↑
- Dexterity ↑
- Damage ↑
- ⚒️ Chance for Barrage to Cast Twice
- ⚒️ Damage/Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Amulet: Umbrous
- Ranks to Frigid Finesse ↑
- Movement Speed ↑
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- Ranks to Deadly Venom ↑
- Ranks to Malice ↑
- ⚒️ Poison Imbuement Count ↑
- ⚒️ Damage/Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Ring 1: Branching Volleys
- Dexterity ↑
- Maximum Life ↑
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- ⚒️ Poison Imbuement Count ↑
- ⚒️ Damage/Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Ring 2: High Velocity
- Maximum Life ↑
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- Any Resistance
- ⚒️ Poison Imbuement Count ↑
- ⚒️ Damage/Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Fill your item's sockets with the following:
- Royal Amethyst into Weapons for extra damage.
- Royal Ruby into Armor for more survivability.
- Any gem type of Resistances you are missing into Jewelry, prioritizing Fire and Lightning first.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
What can I do to improve survivability?
How can I trigger Unstoppable?
What can I do for better Energy recovery?
Mechanics
Dark Shroud Scaling
Attack Speed Caps
Poison Imbuement
Smoke Grenade
Stagger
Video Guide
Summary
The Death Trap Rogue is a fun to play, fast-paced tactical genius that performs well in almost any scenario. With a range of tricks and devices up your sleeve, you can be sure to have all you need to start a fresh season with.
- Invest into Energy recovery as much as possible early on so you can spam Barrage.
- Combine Death Trap with Poison Trap to pull in and crowd control all nearby enemies before decimating them.
- Focus on +Poison Imbuement Count and Damage or Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Temper mods.
- Activate Poison Imbuement whenever ready to apply heavy DoTs and melt enemies.
- Use your crowd controls to deal more damage and stay alive with Dark Shroud triggered from Umbrous.
Credits
Written by wudijo
Shoutout to Avarilyn for in-depth testing and insights on Poison damage mechanics